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Jowhor Ile’s And After Many Days Wins 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature

Book Cover

Out of the three shortlisted finalists for 2016
Etisalat Prize for Literature, a book titled And After Many Days, by Nigerian writer, Jowhor Ile has been
announced as the winner. Published in
Nigeria by Kachifo Limited, the winning book, which gets £15,000 for Ile, defeated Jacqui L’Ange (South Africa) The Seed Thief
(Umuzi Publishers, South Africa); and Julie Iromuanya (Nigeria) Mr & Mrs
Doctor (Coffee House Press, USA).

Ahead of
announcing a winner, The jury, led by Nigerian novelist and poet, Helon Habila
explained that

the three writers were selected from a long
list after fulfilling some criteria. These,
Habila said were ” in addition to originality of voice and literary excellence,
our purpose was to also select a work that portrays READ MORE.

A new book, Obiora Udechukwu:
Line, Image, Text by Chika Okeke-Agulu and published by Skira Editore
(Milan, 2016) was presented in Lagos.

The author’s press statement: This book is a major publication of the
drawings of the US-based Nigerian artist Obiora Udechukwu (b. 1946). With more
than 500 images, nearly half in colour, this is primarily an art book, with
priority given to the reproduction of high quality images selected from the
artist’s drawing books dating from 1965 to the present. The book includes
contextual, scholarly texts and interviews with the artist by the author, as
well as a timeline by Princeton-based art historian Perrin Lathrop and
comprehensive bibliography of the artist by Janet Stanley, librarian at the
Smithsonian Institution.

Udechukwu, who in 1976 was described
by the scholar Pat Oyelola as “master of the sensitive line,” is best known for
his development of a style of drawing and painting inspired by Igbo Uli body
drawing and mural, following the experiments of his teacher Uche Okeke
(1933-2016) in the early 1960s. But Udechukwu’s incomparable draughtsmanship
and pictorial design sensibility led to him to develop drawings and paintings
that not only influenced generations of artists associated with the Nsukka
School in Nigeria, but also secured his place as one of the most consequential
Nigerian artists of the 20th century. This publication, the most substantial on
Udechukwu’s oeuvre, focuses on his drawings for four compelling reasons.

First, the collection of drawing
books from which most of the images are selected is without doubt a treasure
that must be shared with students and professional artists, critics and
scholars, and the general public who appreciate intimate encounters with work
of the artistic imagination; for sketches and drawings provide unique insights
into the artist’s creative process. This is particularly important, for
Udechukwu has, even before he enrolled in art school initially at the Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria in 1965, paid an unusually meticulous attention to
drawing and more importantly to preserving these documents for over half a
century. This career-long exercise has left for us today, documents of
inalienable artistic and documentary importance.

Second, a bulk of these drawings
were produced during the late 1960s, a period of political crises and civil war
in Nigeria (1967-70); they thus provide us a perspective on the experience of
that war quite different from extant literary or documentary accounts it. In
other words, although the drawings published in this book take us on a journey
through Udechukwu’s artistic career, and the different stylistic turns he took
over the decades, they crucially are visual texts about a period of social and
political upheaval from the perspective of a young artist.

Third, given the tremendous global
interest in the work of modern and contemporary African artists since the past
decade, and given that only few close studies, and high quality reproductions
of the work of individual artists exist, this book constitutes an exemplary
publication, that will surely be of interest to the widening stakeholders in
this growing field.

Finally, an perhaps most important,
the sketches and drawings presented in this book are powerful, extraordinary
and profound images that bear testimony to the making of an artistic genius
whose reputation—substantial as it is in the context of twentieth-century
Nigerian art—will certainly continue to grow internationally. Teachers and
students of drawing and painting will appreciate Udechukwu’s

accomplishments in the mastery of
line, space and design; General readers will see the images presented here as a
rare and unique opportunity to encounter a brilliant artist at a most intimate
level. They also will find a beautifully produced book with drawings of an
incredibly accomplished artist and one of the leading figures in modern and
contemporary African art. This book, hopefully, sets a new standard in the
monographic publications on Nigerian and African artists.

The publication of Obiora
Udechukwu: Line, Image, Text has been generously supported by the Ford
Foundation, and Princeton University.

The public presentation will take
place at 5:00PM on March 21 at the African Artists Foundation, 3B Isiola
Oyekan, Off Adeleke Adedoyin, Victoria Island, Lagos.

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The Art of Nigerian
Women

Presented
recently at The Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, The Art of Nigerian Women is a book that was announced with the opening
of Standing Out II, an art exhibition that featured works by ten female
artists of Nigerian descent.

The preview was chaired by Ibukun Awosika,
Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria and attended by many personalities of the Lagos art community
who commended the exhibition and book.

The Art
of Nigerian Women is a 360 page hardback book printed on silk paper,
featuring the work of seventy five leading and emerging contemporary visual
artists -- some of Nigeria’s brightest.
Complementing the artists’ works are scholarly essays, features and profiles of
women who have influenced and helped shape the art industry in Nigeria.

Prof
dele jegede, noted art historian, renowned artist and Professor Emeritus of
Miami University praised the book in his essay: “This is a pioneering work, one
that deserves a prominent place on the shelves of corporate, institutional,
college, and personal libraries. Bosah deserves admiration for the courage and
resources ploughed into this work.”

But
“The journey of researching, writing, and publishing The Art of Nigerian Women has been a labour of love which started
in 2011,” explained Bosah.

“The Art
of Nigerian Women is a testament to the awesome “rising tide” of female
artists in Nigeria, represented by Standing
Out II,” Mbanefo Obiago of SMO
Contemporary Art, the Wheatbaker’s long standing art curator.

“Chukwuemeka
Bosah’s book celebrating female artists is a timely gift to Africa and the
world,” said Chief Nike Okundaye, who has mentored generations of female
artists, and won international awards for her ground breaking work in teaching
art to marginalized women in Nigeria and Europe. “We are delighted that the
powerful work of our female artists is being projected in this beautiful
publication.”

The
public launch of the book was held few hours later at Nike Art Gallery, where
the all female art exhibition - curated by the Nigerian Federation of Female
Artists - opened for one week.

---------------------------------------------------------------

How Rising Nigerian-British
author, Oyeyemi Picked PEN Award

Nigerian-British writer,
Helen Oyeyemi, 33, has won PEN Award for her short-story collection, What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours. Oyeyemi
will formally collect the award at a ceremony on Mar. 27.

The PEN America Open Book Award
is granted to "an exceptional book-length work of literature by an author
of color published in 2016," with a
$5,000 prize.

Oyeyemi's What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours was
one of 10 titles selected for the PEN Open Book Award longlist in December last
year.

Other PEN recipients of the year include
Angela Ajayi, Laura Chow Reeve, and Ben Shattuck.

Oyeyemi's latest book, the story collection
What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours, was released in 2016.

Oyeyemi's bio: born on December 10, 1984, she
wrote her first novel, The Icarus Girl, during her A-levels at Cardinal
Vaughan Memorial School, U.K.

at Corpus Christi College,
Cambridge University, where she studied social and political sciences Oyeyemi's two plays, Juniper's Whitening and
Victimese, were performed by fellow students. The plays got critical acclaim
and subsequently published by Methuen.

In 2007 Bloomsbury published Oyeyemi's second
novel, The Opposite House, which is inspired by Cuban mythology. Her third novel, White is for Witching,
described as having "roots in Henry James and Edgar Allan Poe", was
published by Picador in May 2009. A fourth novel, Mr Fox, was published by
Picador in June 2011, and a fifth, Boy, Snow, Bird, in 2014.

Her novel White Is For Witching in 2009, was Shirley Jackson Award finalist,
but won a 2010 Somerset Maugham Award. In 2009 Oyeyemi was recognized as one of
the women on Venus Zine's "25 under 25" list. In 2013 she was
included in the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. Boy, Snow, Bird
was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2014. Oyeyemi was a
judge on the Booktrust Independent Foreign Fiction Prize for 2015,and served as
a judge for the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

On Wednesday,
January 25, 2017, the world lost one of the finest writers that emerged from
African literary space, novelist Buchi Emecheta. She passed away in her sleep,
aged72, at her care home in London.

Buchi Emecheta (1944-2017

Few of her 20
works include Second-Class Citizen (1974), The Bride Price (1976), The Slave
Girl (1977) and The Joys of Motherhood (1979).

Born in Lagos,
1944, Emecheta moved to England in 1960 with her husband Sylvester Onwordi, to
whom she had been engaged from the age of 11. The author’s personal life is as
interesting as some of the stories she has fictionalised. For example, in her
1974 autobiography Second Class Citizen READ MORE. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Three finalists Go For Etisalat Literature Prize

The authors were shortlisted by a three-member
panel, which comprises of Nigerian novelist and poet, Helon Habila who is the
Chair; South African writer/activist, Elinor Sisulu; and Ivorian writer and
Africa39 laureate, Edwige Renée Dro.

The winner for the
2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature will be unveiled at the Grand Finale in
Lagos, scheduled to take place in March 2017.

Mr. and Mrs. Doctor by Julie
Iromuanya (Coffee House Press, USA), The Yearning by Mohale Mashigo
(PanMacmillan, South Africa), Piggy Boy’s Blues by Nakhane Toure
(Blackbird Books imprint of Jacana Media, SA), The Peculiars by Jen
Thorpe (Penguin Random House, USA), Born on a Tuesday by Elnathan John
(Cassava Republic, Nigeria), And After Many Days by Jowhor Ile (Farafina
an imprint of Kachifo Limited, Nigeria), Dub Steps by Andrew Miller
(Jacana Media, South Africa), The Seed Thief by Jacqui L’Ange (Umuzi
Publishers, South Africa) and Nwezelenga: The Star Child by Unathi
Magubeni (Black Bird Books Imprint of Jacana Media, South Africa).

The list was announced by Helon Habila, chair
of the judging panel of the 2016 Etisalat Prize for Literature. The list, it was
stated, more here. -------------------------------------------------------------Onobrakpeya... Unveiling Visual Storyteller Of Agbarha-OtorBy Tajudeen Sowole

Master printmaker, Dr Bruce
Onobrakpeya is, arguably, the most documented living legend artist in this part
of the world. Adding to the list of books that have, in the past, either
celebrated the artist or highlighted his artworks, is The Storyteller Of
Agbarha-Otor Bruce Onobrakpeya's Visual Tales, written by Dozie Igweze.

Cover of the book

A 228-page hardcover, published by Hourglass
Gallery, the book takes off without the regular openers such as Foreword or
Introduction, but rather goes straight into the incubation of the subject.
Onobrakpeya, according to the opening topic, Eragumire, under Meetings
and Conferences, learned storytelling
in verbal form- as a ten-year-old- before his visual artistry germinated uunder
formal education. But the book, perhaps, sub-consciously sneaks into what the
artist's periods, from post-training time look like.

Three and a half decades after listening to
storytelling as a young boy, Onobrakpeya MORE HERE.

---------------------------------------------------------------Soyinka Is 'Captain Blud' Of A Comic Book

By Tajudeen Sowole

A new comic publication, The
Adventures Of Captain Blud, which depicts Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka
as lead character or 'hero' brings freshness into celebration of values. In
fact, Captain Blud promotes courage and self-esteem, particularly against
imperial tendency.

Cover of the
book.

Across generations, popular comics such as Superman,Batman, Incredible Hulk, among other characters from the western
culture have promoted violence and shaped wrong values under the guise of
entertainment, even beyond the spaces of origin. But Captain Blud is heading
towards a different direction of civility, yet with excitement.

Illustrated in digitally-generated paintings
and dramatised with over 300 frames, this, Soyinka

Chairman, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Advisory Board Prof. Ayo Banjo, announced Abubakar Ibrahim’s book Season of Crimson Blossoms, as the best work in 2016.

Ibrahim beat two other finalists Elnathan John ('Born On A Tuesday') and Chika Unigwe ('Night Dancer').

Abubakar Ibrahim

Ibrahim, a journalist and editor of Arts and Ideas page at Daily Trust on Sunday, stated: "What I wanted to do was to, in a way, drag this part of the country that has been absent in the body of Nigerian literature into the mainstream. That was my major goal. Because there's no way you can tell the Nigerian story if it is not balanced and hasn't been for decades. We have had stories from the south about the south and nothing about the north, so the narrative isn't balanced. So something has to be done instead of sitting down and complaining.”

Before the shortlist, 173 authors participated in the competition, said the Prize’s Advisory Board.

When a new book simply titled
J D Okhai Ojeikere, edited by Bisi
Silva was launched recently at Metropolitan Club, Victoria Island, Lagos,
masterly skill of the late photographer was celebrated. Ojeikere (1930 - 2013) died as one of the foremost African
photographers whose work was widely revered across the world.

Cover of the book.

Reviewing the book before a modest audience
attendance, renowned photographer, Tam Fiofori who has a personal experience to
share about Ojeikere could not but inject some revelations into his
presentation. Also, Sandra Mbanefo-Obiago who gave a Remark at the launch
described the book as settingREAD MORE.

Between
archaeologists and historians, ancient Ife cultural objects appear to have
become so complex such that scientific and literary sources hardly find a
common ground, so suggests a new book, Art
and Risk in Ancient Yoruba: Ife History, Power and Identity, c. 1300,
written by Suzanne Preston Blier.

Cover of the book

A Cambridge University Press publication, the
574-page book is enriched with photographs of iconic Ife objects, graphic
illustrations in plates of textures of some of the sculptures as well as maps
that animate changes in political and trade routes from the 1300 (circa)
starting point of the subject till modern period.

The
author, a professor of African and African-American Studies at Harvard
University, U.S. anchors her Ife findings on the city’s identity as a centre of
knowledge in Yoruba ancient civilization. Blier distils the city's history and
cultural values as vital factors from which she raises quite a number of issues
in the works of some noteable archaeologists MORE.
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'Postcolonial Modernism'...Okeke-Agulu Probes Heart Of Nigerian Art

By Tajudeen Sowole

As short as the period of Nigerian modern art
is, the post-independence era is full of much energy, suggesting that the
emerging contemporary art scene of the country is less colourful. And that
quite a number of books, fora and other outlets of academia or intellectual leanings
have devoted so much space to Nigerian modernity confirms the towering posture
of the period.

Cover of Postcolonial Modernism

In fact, the Nigerian modern art period
is a wide subject that requires segmentations, so suggests a new book,
Postcolonial Modernism: Art and Decolonization in Twentieth-Century Nigeria,
authored by Chika Okeke-Agulu, Associate Professor at the Department of Art and
Archaeology and the Centre for African American Studies, Princeton University,
U.S.Okeke-Agulu's
postcolonial-focus of Nigerian modern art, in this book, most likely, would
inspire future writers to explore the vast areas ofMORE.

Conversations with Fakeye... keeping master carver's legacy alive

By
Tajudeen SowoleSteadily, the modern and
contemporary Nigerian art space is escaping from the shackles of inadequate
documentation, so suggests recent increase in the number of books being
published in the country as art patron, Prince Yemisi Shyllon adds a new one,
revisiting late carver, Lamidi Olonade Fakeye.

By
Tajudeen SowoleSteadily, the modern and
contemporary Nigerian art space is escaping from the shackles of inadequate
documentation, so suggests recent increase in the number of books being
published in the country as art patron, Prince Yemisi Shyllon adds a new one,
revisiting late carver, Lamidi Olonade Fakeye.

Making History… romance of art scholar, collector with native content

By Tajudeen Sowole

Traditional
African art may be unattractive to some collectors at home (Nigeria)
and abroad, but a scholarly experimentation through a collaboration
between Femi Akinsanya African Art Collection (FAAAC) and
Sylvetser-Ogbechi-led Aachron Knowledge Systems, may open a new vista to
traditional art appreciation.

FAAAC's collection of Olowe door

LAST week, the Sandra Obiago-led art initiative, The Collectors’
Series, formally presented the art historian Sylvester Okwunodu
Ogbechie’s latest book, Making History: African Collectors and the Canon
of African Art. The presentation at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos,
was accompanied by a salon exhibition under the theme, Making History:
The Femi Akinsanya African Art Collection.

Published by 5 Continents Editions, an Italy-based publisher of African
art subject, and launched MORE.

Despite being regarded as the most-documented living Nigerian artist,
Dr Bruce Onobrakpeya keeps expanding the literary appreciation as another book Masksofthe Flaming Arrows converges some of the top names
in the art academia to appropriate the artist's career of over five decades.

Cover of the book

Edited by Prof dele jegede, supported by Ford Foundation as
well as Development Alternatives and Resource Centre, the, MORE HERE.

Although, the new book, Sandbank City: Lagos at 150, chronicles colonial and post-independence
eras, but the complexity of preserving the city’s heritage is more pronounced
in the work authored by Prof John Godwin (OFR OBE)
and Gillian Hopwood (MFR).

Cover
of the book Sandbank City: Lagos at 150

PRESENTED
yesterday at The Wheatbaker, Ikoyi, Lagos, Godwin and Hopwood's book is, no
doubt, a comprehensive documentation that may become a reference point in
today’s management of a city in transition. More importantly, in a mono economy
environment such as Nigeria's, which is largely built on oil revenue, the place
of More here.

POST-late environmental activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa appears like a paradox being spear-headed by his immediate constituency – the literary community.

If author, Prof Femi Ojo-Ade, in his book Ken Saro-Wiwa: A Bio-critical Study, (1999) attempted to place the late Ogoni activist naked before the village square, another writer, Adewale Maja-Pearce in his latest effort, Remembering Ken Saro-Wiwa and Other Essays, New Gong Books(2005), continues where MORE.